Yoak: More Lewis Carroll – The Square Window

This puzzle is taken from a letter Carroll wrote to a 14-year-old girl named Helen Fielden.  Carroll writes:

I don’t know if you’re fond of puzzles, or not.  If you are, try this.  If not, never mind.  A gentlemen (a nobleman let us say, to make it more interesting) had a sitting-room with only one window in it — a square window, 3 feet high and 3 feet wide.  Now, he had weak eyes, and the window gave too much light, so (don’t you like “so” in a story?) he sent for the builder, and told hm to alter it, so as to give half the light.  Only, he was to keep it square — he was to keep it 3 feet high — and he was to keep it 3 feet wide.  How did he do it?  Remember, he wasn’t allowed to use curtains, or shutters, or coloured glass, or anything of that sort.

2 Comments »

  1. Blaine said,

    September 11, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Oh well, I tried to add something but the commenting system stripped it.
    [spoiler]Look at unicode character 25C7[/spoiler]

  2. jyoak said,

    September 11, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    Blaine, that’s right, and very cleverly expressed!  :-)

     

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